


Their First Noel

by closemyeyesandleap



Series: Families of SHIELD [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Christmas, F/F, F/M, Family Feels, Gen, Team as Family, parenting, philindaisy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-28 04:12:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17175626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/closemyeyesandleap/pseuds/closemyeyesandleap
Summary: At Christmas dinner, Daisy discovers an unexpected way to calm her baby daughter.*AKA*Heaps of Christmas fluff and feels with the SHIELD team and their families.





	Their First Noel

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays everyone!
> 
> Of all the stories in my "Families of SHIELD" series, "We Will Always Be Family" most directly informs this story. 
> 
> While this story works perfectly well as a stand-alone, reading "We Will Always Be Family" adds context and depth.

“Do you think she’ll make it through dinner?” Daisy asked Robbie as they huddled in the back of Daisy’s car. Robbie cradled their wailing four-month-old daughter, Gaby, in his arms. 

“ _Tranquila, mi cielo, tranquila_ ,” Robbie cooed. “Papá’s got you.”

He rocked Gaby a little more before responding. “Maybe. Doesn’t matter if she cries, though. Everyone coming loves you, and her. They’ll understand.”

Daisy shrugged. “I guess.” She stroked Gaby’s soft hair, murmuring, “What’s the matter, sweetie?” 

Little Gaby continued to cry.

Neither Daisy nor Robbie could figure out what was making Gaby so upset. Gaby had just been changed and fed, and she didn’t seem particularly tired. She was dressed in a plush red Christmas onesie with the soft fabric that she normally loved.

For the last month or so, Gaby had grown increasingly fussy, crying through the night and during the day, even when all her needs were met and she was being cuddled. Daisy couldn’t help the nagging suspicion that Gaby suspected she was about to return to work.

“There you go, there you go,” Robbie murmured as Gaby settled down. He placed her in her carseat and prepared her for the short walk from the car to May and Coulson’s door. 

“Here’s to hoping it lasts,” Daisy said wearily as she picked up the store-bought pies and opened the car door to a rush of chilly air.

* * *

A wave of sweet and savory aromas, festive sounds, and bright colors washed over the small family as Coulson greeted them at the door.

“Merry Christmas!” Coulson beamed, a Santa hat perched on his head and a necklace of Christmas lights around his neck.

From the looks of the crowded family room, Robbie and Daisy were the last to arrive. Elena and Mack were in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on the Christmas feast. After cooing over his grandbaby, Coulson rejoined them.

Piper and her wife, Alex, stood in a corner, chatting with May and Jemma. Six-year-old Rosy Mackenzie and five-year-old Sam Fitzsimmons chased Rosy’s toddler brothers around the room, howling with laughter. Davis and his wife, Mia, poured over Coulson’s antique collection that lined the shelves while their sons, nine-year-old Riley and seven-year-old Nick, faced each other in a fierce game of foosball. 

Only Fitz was missing. After a moment, he emerged from the guest bedroom, his and Jemma’s giggling baby son, Leo, in his arms. 

“Little fellow needed his nappy changed,” Fitz explained to Daisy and Robbie as a greeting.

“Looks like he’s all happy now,” Daisy smiled. “Hi, Leo,” she cooed, waving gently at him. Leo gave her a gummy smile and reached out to grab Daisy’s fingers.

“Look, your friend is here. Say hi to Gaby!” Fitz told his son, pointing to Gaby before taking Leo’s little hand in his and waving it back and forth.

Gaby blinked sleepily up at Fitz and Leo and kicked half-heartedly. 

“Let’s get you out of there, how about that?” Daisy muttered as she bent down to unstrap Gaby from her carseat. “Up you go, now. Can you give me a smile? Hm?” She grinned at her baby, tickling her until Gaby’s face began to spread in a smile. 

“There you go. You look just like your mum, you know that?” Fitz cooed to Gaby.

“You think?” Daisy replied. “Everyone says she’s the spitting image of Robbie.” 

Fitz considered. “I dunno, maybe? She has your eyes.” He shifted Leo in his arms. “Let’s go see mummy, alright?”

“Bye, little man,” Robbie waved as Leo and Fitz crossed the room. 

Robbie took Gaby from Daisy as they made the rounds, hugging the other guests. Daisy gazed around the room, marveling at the decorations. A large live fir tree covered with antique ornaments and children’s crafts stood in a place of prominence at the edge of the room. Lights were strung from the ceiling, twinkling softly over the scene below. Garlands wrapped with tinsel lined the fireplace.

Daisy chuckled as she saw a figurine of Santa Claus on an end table, dressed in swim trunks and a red Hawaiian shirt and dancing mechanically to “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree.”

“I’m assuming you picked this out?” Daisy smirked at May as she gave her a hug.

May snickered. “It reminds him of Tahiti.” 

Daisy wiggled her eyebrows. “Ooh, it’s a magical place again, is it?” 

May gave Daisy a light shove.

Daisy walked over to greet Jemma, Piper, and Alex as the sounds of a childish argument reached her ears. 

“They _are_ twins!” Sam insisted to Rosy. The two had stopped chasing the Mackenzie boys and were engaged in a heated dispute. 

Rosy rolled her eyes. “No, they’re not. Twins have the same mommy and daddy. Leo and Gaby have different mommies and daddies, so they’re not twins.”

“They are to!” Sam retorted. “They got the same birthday so they gotta be twins!”

“Yeah, but they gotta have the same mommy and daddy too, like Antoine and Alphie,” Rosy argued, referring to her little brothers. “Gaby and Leo don’t, so they aren’t twins.”

“They are _to_.” Sam stomped her foot, her face growing almost as red as her hair.

“You don’t get it. You’re just in kindergarten. _I’m_ in first grade,” Rosy replied, her chest swelling with self-importance.

“Mommy!” Sam screeched. “Rosy called me dumb!” 

“Did not!”

“Did to!”

“Girls!” Simmons said sharply. “We don’t talk to each other like that.”

Both girls pouted. 

“Sorry, Mommy.”

“Sorry, Aunt Jemma.”

“Apologize to each other and go play nicely until dinner, alright?” Jemma instructed, shifting her son in her arms.

Daisy watched the little girls walk away and then embraced Jemma. “Merry Christmas,” she told her friend. “You’re a good mom, you know that?”

Jemma smiled at Daisy. “Think we should tell them the answer to that conundrum or let them try to figure it out for a while longer?”

Daisy laughed. “I kind of like Sam thinking Gaby and Leo are twins. It’s sweet.” 

“Though, scientifically speaking, completely inaccurate,” Simmons added.

Daisy and Simmons had always been close, but their matching pregnancies had given them an additional bond, despite Jemma’s tendency to share graphic biological factoids that Daisy had no desire to know. Even so, the parallel pregnancies and deliveries also served as a constant source of nagging comparison.

Daisy suffered from crippling morning sickness as Jemma only experienced an intense craving for over-cooked steak.

Daisy struggled to put on the necessary weight while Jemma grew round and glowing.

Luckily, both babies were born on time and healthy. Following the births, however, Simmons slipped into mothering her second baby with relative ease while Daisy fought to adjust to caring for the little new life for which she and Robbie were now entirely responsible. On top of the normal worries, she had to struggle with her body’s frustrating tendency to let off a wave of quakes when her baby’s cries caught her unawares.

Over the last two months, she’d managed to regain control over the quakes, though not before destroying several sets of dishes and a number of picture frames. Most people only had to baby-proof their house, she thought wryly. Her and Robbie’s apartment was the only home that also had to be Daisy-proofed. 

“Dinner will be ready in twenty!” Coulson called over the din of the gathering. “T minus twenty! I repeat, T minus twenty!”

“Oh, best put the little ones down for their nap,” Jemma said, cuddling Leo and walking toward the guest bedrooms. May and Coulson had a big four-bedroom house, complete with three guest bedrooms. One contained two sets of bunkbeds and the other, several cribs and changing tables.

Mack led his twin toddler sons by the hand into the room with the bunkbeds. Daisy saw Robbie taking Gaby into the room with the cribs. She saw that Gaby was nodding off against Robbie’s chest and hoped that her daughter would stay fast asleep throughout dinner.

Daisy retreated to the kitchen to help Coulson begin to dish out the food and set the table. Her stomach growled as a mixture of spices met her nose. The savory butter and garlic scent of the turkey mixed with the wholesome aroma of the _sancocho_ that Elena had concocted. The sugary scent of Coulson’s sweet potato casserole intermingled with the warm smell of bread. A backdrop of hot oil hovered around the kitchen from Elena’s _buñuelos._

“Mm, everything looks delicious,” she remarked.

“Oh, I can only claim credit for the boring parts. Mack and YoYo made the really good stuff,” Coulson smiled. 

“Sure,” Daisy laughed. “This turkey looks _very_ boring.”

As they stood side by side, dishing out potatoes, green beans, and stuffing, Coulson stopped to look at Daisy. 

“How are you feeling about going back to SHIELD?”

Daisy bit her lip. “It’s been far too long. Piper’s done a good job holding down the fort, though. But…” she let her voice fade off.

“You’re going to miss your baby,” Coulson finished.

Daisy glanced down. “Of course. But… it’s not just that. I haven’t been able to find a good daycare for her. Robbie is cutting his hours back to three days a week, but we still need to put her somewhere for those days. Fitzsimmons have been taking Leo to a place they love, but every place I visit, all I can imagine is some punk I’ve pissed off or idiot out to make a name for himself bursting through the doors and taking her.”

Coulson nodded.

“Fitzsimmons can fly under the radar. But with all those stupid news cameras showing up to every other fight and the reporters at the press conferences, I can’t. I’m just so afraid that––”

“Melinda and I can watch her,” Coulson cut in. 

Daisy blinked at him. “I can’t ask you to do that.”

“Well, that’s good, because you didn’t ask. I’m offering.”

“I don’t–– I mean, what about May?”

“‘What about May’ what?” Melinda asked, walking up behind Daisy and Coulson, her hands open to pick up more dishes. 

“I officially volunteered us to watch our precious little grandbaby three days a week while Daisy and Robbie are working,” Phil told her.

Daisy could have sworn she saw Coulson bat his eyelashes at May.

“I didn’t ask you guys to. Don’t worry about it. I’ll work something out,” Daisy protested.

“No need,” May said. “We’ll watch her.”

“But––”

“Daisy,” May interjected. “It’s OK. We’ve already talked about offering. We would love to.”

“You shouldn’t have to worry about her safety during the day. You’ve got my spy agency to run,” Coulson added with a wink.

Daisy looked from one to the other. “Really? Are you sure?”

“Of course. That’s what grandparents are for,” Coulson responded gently.

“Yeah,” May agreed. “Besides, I need a new challenge. Two years of retirement is already two years too much leisure.”

Daisy felt a lump rising in her throat. “Thank you,” she whispered. She smiled and narrowed her eyes at May, “Though please wait till my baby can at least talk before you teach her to take down opponents twice her size, ‘kay?”

May grinned. “I make no promises.”

* * *

Between Coulson, May, Daisy, and YoYo, they had finally covered the dining room table with food. As the other adults sat down to eat, Coulson snuck to the kids’ table and placed a cookie on each of the four plates. He held up a finger to his lips and gave a conspiratorial grin to Sam, Rosy, Nick, and Riley before heading back to the dining room.

The twelve adults sat down around the table. Before they began to dig into the feast before them, Mack cleared his throat. 

“I’d like to say a prayer before we eat, if that’s alright with everyone.”

Everybody gave their assent, so Mack bowed his head and began.

“Dear Lord, thank you for this Christmas. We thank you for the chance for all of us to come together, for the family that we have grown to be, and the little ones you have given to us. We remember this day those who have gone before, those who we wish with all our hearts were with us now. Thank you for this feast we have before us, and we pray for many more opportunities to gather like this and celebrate together. Amen.”

A chorus of amens followed, and the group began to pass around the food.

For a while, conversation dimmed as everyone eagerly dug into their plates, savoring the eclectic collection of dishes. Daisy kept one ear trained on the guest bedroom. Sure enough, a mere fifteen minutes into the meal, she heard a wail arise from behind the door. She sighed.

“That’s Gaby.” She waited a moment to see if the cries ceased, but Gaby continued to wail.

She got up and walked into the bedroom. She lifted Gaby into her arms and rocked her, singing quietly. She glanced down into Leo’s crib. The little baby boy whimpered for a moment and then coughed and drifted back asleep.

Of course he did. Daisy sighed again.

Daisy exited the room with Gaby so as to not wake up Leo again. She started to walk away from the dining room when a sea of voices started to call her back.

“Bring her here!”

“Hey, it’s OK. She can stay!” 

“No, Daisy! Come eat!”

Daisy sighed and returned to the dining room. She sat at her place and began to rock Gaby on her left side while finishing her meal.

Gaby continued to fuss throughout the meal, her cries sometimes dulling to whimpers and sometimes escalating to wails. 

As Mack started to clear the table and prepare to bring out dessert, however, Daisy felt a vibration in her bones. A second later, the remaining plates on the table began to shake, and the dregs at the bottom of their wine glasses spread across the table cloth. As the floor shook, the ridiculous dancing Santa Claus toppled over and a high-pitch scream sounded from the kitchen. The shaking started to fade as quickly as it had started.

YoYo flashed out and back into the room. “All the kids are fine.” She said. “Just spooked.”

Daisy felt several hands on her shoulders and back. “Hey, calm down, love,” Robbie whispered.

“You alright, Daisy?” Coulson asked, his voice tinged with worry.

“Just breathe with me, OK?” Jemma instructed.

Daisy rolled her eyes. “Guys, that wasn’t me.”

“Is it happening again? Because of Gaby?” Robbie insisted.

“I told you, Robbie,” Daisy said, more firmly. “It wasn’t me. That was a 100% natural earthquake.”

Everybody kept watching in her in silence.

Silence.

Daisy glanced down at the baby in her arms. Rather than shrieking as she had a moment before, Gaby was cuddling in close to Daisy, her little head tucked under Daisy’s chin and her tiny hands holding onto Daisy’s shirt, a contented look spread across her face.

“Well, look at that,” Coulson murmured. 

A baby’s cry arose, not from Gaby but from the guest room behind them. “I guess that’s my cue,” Fitz said as he got up to comfort his baby. 

“Who would have guessed it?” Daisy marveled. “She’ll cry over anything these days, but the world starts shaking and she’s comfy as can be.”

Robbie caressed his daughter’s back with his hand. “ _¿No te asustaste, eh? Así como tu mami…_ ” His eyes widened. “Oh.”

“That makes sense,” Elena agreed.

“What?” Daisy asked, looking from one to the other.

“Think about it,” Robbie insisted. “The more control you’ve gotten over your powers when she cries, the fussier she’s gotten. She never used to cry like this, but the last month…”

“…I’ve stopped quaking at home,” Daisy finished. “Really? You think she… what? Misses it?”

“Of course,” Jemma nodded. “She spent nine months inside of you, feeling the unique way that your body generates and handles vibrations. Then when she was born, the quakes were a reminder that her mom was close by.” She smiled. “For her… your quakes must feel like home.”

Daisy blinked. “I never thought of it that way. So, what am I supposed to do? Quake my baby?” 

Jemma considered. “I’d like to run some tests to make sure. But I don’t think that small vibrations would hurt her any more than riding in a car hurts a young child.”

Daisy allowed her body to release the slightest of quakes, no more than a buzz. Sure enough, Gaby smacked her lips and snuggled closer to her chest.

Tears filled Daisy’s eyes. “I’ve got you, sweetie. I’ve got you.” Her heart swelled with emotion. She had spent so much time fighting with her powers’ strange reaction to motherhood after Gaby was born that she hadn’t stopped to consider that they weren’t an obstacle at all but instead another bond between her and her baby.

“She knows her mommy,” Coulson said. 

“Yes, she does,” Robbie agreed, glowing with pride.

Mack squeezed Daisy’s shoulder and then retreated to the kitchen to bring out the pies. Daisy kept Gaby in her arms, marveling over their new discovery, their new connection.

* * *

The party lasted late into the night. When the little girls started to stumble and yawn and cling to their mothers, the Fitzsimmons family and the Mackenzie-Rodriguez family decided to bid their farewells. They gathered up the sleeping infant and the dozing toddlers and gave one last “Merry Christmas” as they slipped out the door.

“See you next week, boss,” Elena grinned at Daisy. 

The Davis family followed after, though their excitable boys looked less than happy to leave the endless supply of cookies. Piper’s wife, Alex, led a very tipsy Piper to their car, helping her get in before waving back at the team. 

Finally, Daisy collected Gaby into her arms, and she and Robbie walked to the door.

“Thank you for a wonderful Christmas,” she murmured to May and Coulson. “I… I never thought I’d have one like that.”

“We’ll have many, many more,” Coulson replied. He leaned over and caressed Gaby’s cheek. “Grandpa and PoPo will be seeing you soon, OK, sweetheart?”

He clapped Robbie on the back, and May gave both of them a hug.

As Coulson and May closed the door, Daisy and Robbie remained on the doorstep a moment more.

“Merry Christmas, _amor_ ,” Robbie whispered as he gave Daisy a soft kiss.

Daisy wrapped her right arm around Robbie as she clutched Gaby in the left. “Merry Christmas,” she whispered as her heart glowed, and she gave those she loved the gentlest of quakes.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, and I would love to hear your thoughts!


End file.
